Grinding brick into dust for brick repairs

[Secret_Sipper]

Looking at a few YouTube videos to get the brick colour to match on a few brick repairs.

I've seen the likes of stonelux which offer brick repairs and paints to touch up etc but the video was quite interesting in grinding the original house bricks up and running that through lime mortar.

Yes or no?

If yes, what is the best and easiest way to grind them into a dust enough to put into mortar?
If no, are we down the the stonelux kinda of products that give a something like match?

Thanks

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I thought I'd be clever once and used mastic followed by pressing brick dust into the surface. It looked nothing like.

I've used Stonelux, it's excellent stuff and almost completely invisible. I can confirm that for me and my monitor at least the colour guide on their website was accurate.

My suspicion is that it you use the exact brick then you'll get a darker colour, as it's suspended in clear glue so has a darker wet look. So to end up with the right colour you'll need to start with a lighter brick.

 

[Secret_Sipper]

This is just how long I've been procrastinating over it. I bought the colour chart about 5 years ago but lost interest as I couldnt decide on the colour match. Not helping on being colour blind!

My idea was grinding/chipping away the face of the damaged brick. Mixing the dust with lime mortar and building it up. To get the brick pattern. Plaster of Paris the brick and use as a "stamp"

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Way too much fuss, and plaster or lime are white so it will be some kind of awful bleached pink.

Just buy the proper stuff, I can confirm from personal experience that it's excellent. They use some sort of clear resin, probably a glue or varnish or similar. Our bricks have a very heavy pattern but I found it really wasn't necessary to copy it. Basically fill the hole, press/scrape flat and it's gone. Think I used a paintbrush to rough it up a bit.

 

[robinbanks]

Show us pictures of what you're trying to repair

 

[opps]

A mate of mine is an extremely good brick pointer. He uses everbuild mortar tone.

208 Powder Mortar Tone | Pointing | Everbuild

208 Powder Mortar Tone is formulated from high quality oxide pigments for permanently colouring all types of mortars, rendering, concrete and pointing. World Class Manufacturing. 25 Years of Expertise. Order Today.

www.everbuild.co.uk

Where brick faces have only slightly blown, he uses mortar on the brick face and when dry, he mixes the above product with pva and water and brushes it on to the repaired area.

It really is impressive. And if I am decorating the exterior after, I ask him to leave some on site so that I can cover up old paint splashes on the brick work.

 

[robinbanks]

I ask him to leave some on site

It's about a tenner a tin if you want to buy your own small quants. Common enough that even Wickes stock some shades

 

[cdbe]

Show us pictures of what you're trying to repair

Helps a lot. Sometimes you can "nick" a few bricks from behind the gas meter or similar. If you want the dust an angle grinder is best.

 

[catlad]

If its a clay brick you can hit it with a lump hammer until there is nothing left to hit.

 

[catlad]

less dust!

 

[^woody^]

It's the old bodgers trick to fool the customer or the site manager and get paid. It will last until the first frosts.

 

[lostinthelight]

If its a clay brick you can hit it with a lump hammer until there is nothing left to hit.

Exactly, Ive been doing similar for years with different sandstone to disguise concrete that couldn't be easily replaced with natural material...texture can be varied depending on how hard one crushes the stones.
Ive done similar outside 4 years ago and its as sound as a rock

 

[robinbanks]

Is that concrete impressed with a stone effect and then painted with crushed sandstone? Nice work. What approach did you use to make the outside so durable?

 

[lostinthelight]

Is that concrete impressed with a stone effect and then painted with crushed sandstone? Nice work. What approach did you use to make the outside so durable?

No not impressed, I cut into the concrete bricks to make them more stone like then raise the surface of each with different coloured crushed stone .

 

[robinbanks]

No not impressed

Have to say, I am!